NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

This module provides you with the framework to write Source Filters in Perl.

An alternate interface to Filter::Util::Call is now available. See Filter::Simple for more details.

A Perl Source Filter is implemented as a Perl module. The structure of the module can take one of two broadly similar formats. To distinguish between them, the first will be referred to as method filter and the second as closure filter.

To make use of either of the two filter modules above, place the line below in a Perl source file.

use MyFilter;

In fact, the skeleton modules shown above are fully functional Source Filters, albeit fairly useless ones. All they does is filter the source stream without modifying it at all.

As you can see both modules have a broadly similar structure. They both make use of the Filter::Util::Call module and both have an import method. The difference between them is that the method filter requires a filter method, whereas the closure filter gets the equivalent of a filter method with the anonymous sub passed to filter_add.

To make proper use of the closure filter shown above you need to have a good understanding of the concept of a closure. See perlref for more details on the mechanics of closures.

use Filter::Util::Call

The following functions are exported by Filter::Util::Call:

filter_add()
filter_read()
filter_read_exact()
filter_del()

import()

The import method is used to create an instance of the filter. It is called indirectly by Perl when it encounters the use MyFilter line in a source file (See "import" in perlfunc for more details on import).

It will always have at least one parameter automatically passed by Perl - this corresponds to the name of the package. In the example above it will be "MyFilter".

Apart from the first parameter, import can accept an optional list of parameters. These can be used to pass parameters to the filter. For example:

use MyFilter qw(a b c) ;

will result in the @_ array having the following values:

@_ [0] => "MyFilter"
@_ [1] => "a"
@_ [2] => "b"
@_ [3] => "c"

Before terminating, the import function must explicitly install the filter by calling filter_add.

filter_add()

The function, filter_add, actually installs the filter. It takes one parameter which should be a reference. The kind of reference used will dictate which of the two filter types will be used.

If a CODE reference is used then a closure filter will be assumed.

If a CODE reference is not used, a method filter will be assumed. In a method filter, the reference can be used to store context information. The reference will be blessed into the package by filter_add, unless the reference was already blessed.

See the filters at the end of this documents for examples of using context information using both method filters and closure filters.

filter() and anonymous sub

Both the filter method used with a method filter and the anonymous sub used with a closure filter is where the main processing for the filter is done.

The big difference between the two types of filter is that the method filter uses the object passed to the method to store any context data, whereas the closure filter uses the lexical variables that are maintained by the closure.

Note that the single parameter passed to the method filter, $self, is the same reference that was passed to filter_add blessed into the filter's package. See the example filters later on for details of using $self.

Here is a list of the common features of the anonymous sub and the filter() method.

$_

Although $_ doesn't actually appear explicitly in the sample filters above, it is implicitly used in a number of places.

Firstly, when either filter or the anonymous sub are called, a local copy of $_ will automatically be created. It will always contain the empty string at this point.

Next, both filter_read and filter_read_exact will append any source data that is read to the end of $_.

Finally, when filter or the anonymous sub are finished processing, they are expected to return the filtered source using $_.

This implicit use of $_ greatly simplifies the filter.

$status

The status value that is returned by the user's filter method or anonymous sub and the filter_read and read_exact functions take the same set of values, namely:

< 0 Error
= 0 EOF
> 0 OK

filter_read and filter_read_exact

These functions are used by the filter to obtain either a line or block from the next filter in the chain or the actual source file if there aren't any other filters.

The function filter_read takes two forms:

$status = filter_read() ;
$status = filter_read($size) ;

The first form is used to request a line, the second requests a block.

In line mode, filter_read will append the next source line to the end of the $_ scalar.

In block mode, filter_read will append a block of data which is <= $size to the end of the $_ scalar. It is important to emphasise the that filter_read will not necessarily read a block which is precisely$size bytes.

If you need to be able to read a block which has an exact size, you can use the function filter_read_exact. It works identically to filter_read in block mode, except it will try to read a block which is exactly $size bytes in length. The only circumstances when it will not return a block which is $size bytes long is on EOF or error.

It is very important to check the value of $status after every call to filter_read or filter_read_exact.

filter_del

The function, filter_del, is used to disable the current filter. It does not affect the running of the filter. All it does is tell Perl not to call filter any more.

Example 2: Using the context

The previous example was not particularly useful. To make it more general purpose we will make use of the context data and allow any arbitrary from and to strings to be used. This time we will use a closure filter. To reflect its enhanced role, the filter is called Subst.

Example 3: Using the context within the filter

Here is a filter which a variation of the Joe2Jim filter. As well as substituting all occurrences of "Joe" to "Jim" it keeps a count of the number of substitutions made in the context object.

Once EOF is detected ($status is zero) the filter will insert an extra line into the source stream. When this extra line is executed it will print a count of the number of substitutions actually made. Note that $status is set to 1 in this case.

Example 4: Using filter_del

Another variation on a theme. This time we will modify the Subst filter to allow a starting and stopping pattern to be specified as well as the from and to patterns. If you know the vi editor, it is the equivalent of this command:

Filter::Simple

If you intend using the Filter::Call functionality, I would strongly recommend that you check out Damian Conway's excellent Filter::Simple module. Damian's module provides a much cleaner interface than Filter::Util::Call. Although it doesn't allow the fine control that Filter::Util::Call does, it should be adequate for the majority of applications. It's available at